Soon after entering Akron, I-76 exits the main freeway, which continues east as Interstate 277, onto the short Kenmore Expressway; U.S. Route 224 leaves I-76 there and continues east as a surface road after I-277 ends at Interstate 77. Shortly after heading north from the I-277 interchange, I-76 meets I-77 and again turns east, joining southbound I-77 through downtown Akron on the West Expressway. A partial interchange provides access to State Route 59, the Innerbelt, and then I-76 crosses through the Central Interchange, where I-77 goes south (on the South Expressway) and State Route 8 begins to the north (on the North Expressway); I-76 switches from the West Expressway to the East Expressway.

Leaving the Akron area, I-76 again heads through rural areas, crossing Portage County and entering Mahoning County. West of Youngstown, the freeway crosses the Ohio Turnpike. Officially I-76 ends at the Turnpike overpass and I-76K begins on the Turnpike at the overpass, with a similar change happening with Interstate 80 and I-80K (east on the freeway to Youngstown and west on the Turnpike). In reality, access between the roads is via a double trumpet connection in the northeast corner of the crossing, along which I-76 and I-80 both run in opposite directions.

New Jersey

North South Freeway

Walt Whitman Bridge

Just after crossing the river, I-76 turns south along the north–south Freeway, which carries Interstate 676 north to downtown Camden; the unsigned Route 76C connector runs east to U.S. Route 130 and Route 168. The exit numbers in New Jersey are backwards, running from east to west.

From the I-676 interchange to the end, I-76 originally had local and express lanes in both directions, but the eastbound barrier has since been removed, and now the separation is westbound only; however, the westbound barrier might also be removed in the future due to plans to rebuild the I-295, I-76, and Route 42 interchange. I-76 ends at an interchange with Interstate 295 on the Mount Ephraim/Bellmawr town line, where the local/express split begins heading westbound. Route 42 continues south on the north–south Freeway, feeding into the Atlantic City Expressway to Atlantic City. While the South Jersey Transportation Authority (which owns the ACE) is not against the idea of making Route 42 and the ACE an eastern extension of I-76, they feel that making the change without a compelling reason would only add to motorists' confusion in southern New Jersey.[2]

History

The majority of I-76, along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, includes the first long-distance rural freeway in the U.S.; the Ohio Turnpike and Schuylkill Expressway are also pre-Interstate freeways. By 1955, the section of that route from west of Youngstown to downtown Philadelphia was included in the planned Interstate Highway System, as was present I-76 from west of Youngstown to Akron. (Some early plans called for a new freeway along State Route 14 to the Pennsylvania state line; it is unclear when the proposed route was shifted to the Turnpikes.)

Current and once-planned Interstates near Cleveland; I-80 would have run via Akron, using what is now I-76 east of Akron.

However, the 1957 numbering was drawn on a map from 1947, which did not include several changes that had been approved, specifically the Keystone Shortway across Pennsylvania. (The route in that corridor ran further north, along U.S. Route 6, and was numbered Interstate 84.) Thus, the final numbering, approved in 1958, assigned I-80 to the Norwalk-Youngstown route to reach the Keystone Shortway. The former alignment through Cleveland became Interstate 80N; the Turnpike was still not assigned a number from near Elyria (where I-80N and I-90 would split from it) to west of Youngstown. The route from west of Youngstown to Philadelphia was assigned Interstate 80S, and extended east to I-295 in New Jersey when the three-digit Interstates were assigned in 1959. (The planned I-80N in Pennsylvania became I-78.) Initial spurs of I-80S were I-180 (now I-176), I-280 (now I-276), I-480 (now I-476) and I-680 (now I-676, though it swapped with I-76 in 1972).

I-80 was realigned in Ohio by 1962, largely taking over former I-80N, which ran through Cleveland, joining the Turnpike southwest of Cleveland. However, while I-80N was planned to split from I-80 near Kent and run northwest to Cleveland along State Route 14, the new alignment of I-80 used the Turnpike between the crossing west of Youngstown and the crossing with State Route 14 at Streetsboro. The former I-80 from near Youngstown west to Akron became part of I-80S, as did a new alignment (already built as U.S. Route 224) from Akron west to I-71 east of Lodi; the rest of proposed I-80 west to near Norwalk (which would have crossed I-71 near Medina) was removed from the Interstate Highway System. Ca. 1971, I-80 was moved to the Turnpike between Streetsboro and southwest of Cleveland; the old route became I-480.

"To Turnpike 76" sign in Pennsylvania

On April 16, 1963, due in part to the extension of I-79 south from the Pittsburgh area, Pennsylvania proposed a partial renumbering. A new number, tentatively designated I-76, would run from downtown Pittsburgh east on what was then I-70 (I-70S bypassed Pittsburgh to the south on what is now I-70) to the Pennsylvania Turnpike at Monroeville, and then east along the remainder of I-80S to I-295. I-80S would remain on the section of turnpikes from west of Youngstown to Monroeville. This was approved February 26, 1964, and included the renumbering of all X80 spurs to X76.

On June 29, 1970, a renumbering was approved in the Pittsburgh area, with the main effect being rerouting I-79 to bypass Pittsburgh to the west on the former I-279. I-279 was moved to the former I-79 north of downtown, and the former I-79 from downtown southwest to new I-79 became a western extension of I-76. (It was then that I-876 was designated for former I-479.) A realignment and extension of I-76 into Ohio, taking over the rest of I-80S to I-71 east of Lodi, was approved January 11, 1972. The former I-76 from Monroeville west into downtown Pittsburgh became I-376, and I-279 was extended southwest from downtown along former I-76 to I-79. (I-876 was renumbered to I-579 then.) Signs in Ohio were changed September 1, 1972; the old I-80S signs remained for about a year.

On August 29, 1972, a swap of I-76 and I-676 in Philadelphia and Camden was approved. I-76 had been routed along the Vine Street Expressway and Ben Franklin Bridge (now I-676) through Center City Philadelphia, while I-676 used the Schuylkill Expressway and Walt Whitman Bridge to bypass downtown to the south. The switch was made because of delays in building the Vine Street Expressway, better interchange geometry at the splits, and that the Ben Franklin Bridge ends in city streets, rather than in expressway grade.

The renumbering of a Philadelphia Interstate to 76 in the years leading up the to the Bicentennial Celebration of the 1776 signing in Philadelphia of the Declaration of Independence gives rise to the question of the highway number being an intentional tribute to the Spirit of '76. USDoT research into federal documentation of the I-76 renumbering found no evidence of this being intentional.[1]